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Something about older autistic adults (>60), for a change

Jenny Butterfly
over 2 years ago

To me there still seems to be a gap in the market, with most resources focussing on autistic children and young adults and hardly anything for older people.  So it makes a change to see a video on the experience of older autistic people. 

We could really due with resources that cover the whole lifespan, I think, including end of life care (my unidentified autistic dad died on a busy, noisy ward (radio 2 blaring constantly, as if this would automatically be helpful to patients) which, even though I wasn't aware of our neurodivergence even just a few years ago, I know would have made him much less comfortable).

Dad enjoyed peace and quiet, or maybe a little Radio 4 and I remember thinking that it was a pity he wouldn't wear earphones (great difficulty putting up with anything around his head or face, including glasses).  We all need and deserve much better as we grow older.

 www.youtube.com/watch  

Parents
  • over 2 years ago

    I'd like to see some analysis of the cohorts used in these studies.  I've seen the figure of 54 bandied about too.  It's good in a way, as it draws attention to the difficulties we face and obviously charities will use it for that reason.  However, it can also be very anxiety provoking.  If I took it seriously (I really don't), I guess I'd be led to believe that I'm living on borrowed time!

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Jenny Butterfly

    I think this is the basis of it. A large Swedish study, leading to teh article

    Premature mortality in autism spectrum disorder 

    by Hirvikoski et al. 

    Not sure how flawed or otherwise the methodology is, my brain isn't good with that stuff. 

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Shardovan

    I seem to have access to the full article but that might be due to my workplace having me authenticated for full-text. Might be paywalled otherwise? 

    Looks like 77%  of the monitored ASD sample was categorised 'high functioning' 

    With the exception of suicide - higher for 'high functioning'- and 'external (other)', the 23% 'low functioning' significantly outweighed the 77% 'high functioning' in most health categories. Eg. nervous disorders 40 to 3 deaths respectively. For mental health disorders as cause it was 22 to 2. But in each column, the percenntages do seem notionally higher than 'general population' equivalents (much bigger sample of course). Cleverer minds than mine can hopefully work out how persuasive the overall conclusion was. 

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  • over 2 years ago in reply to Shardovan

    I seem to have access to the full article but that might be due to my workplace having me authenticated for full-text. Might be paywalled otherwise? 

    Looks like 77%  of the monitored ASD sample was categorised 'high functioning' 

    With the exception of suicide - higher for 'high functioning'- and 'external (other)', the 23% 'low functioning' significantly outweighed the 77% 'high functioning' in most health categories. Eg. nervous disorders 40 to 3 deaths respectively. For mental health disorders as cause it was 22 to 2. But in each column, the percenntages do seem notionally higher than 'general population' equivalents (much bigger sample of course). Cleverer minds than mine can hopefully work out how persuasive the overall conclusion was. 

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